Barchart issued a whitepaper outlining a new basis index tool to help grain sellers and buyers. The head of commodities at Barchart, Michael Brown, says the basis index is based on local elevator bids. “You can compare county to county to find good marketing opportunities, look at seasonality around basis and see if the current basis is stronger than historical trends,” he says. “You can look at the forward curve for basis, if it’s strengthening or weakening as we go into planting. We can even predict what the movements will be in basis for a three-month period.” Barchart collects cash bid data from more than 4,000 elevators. “Not just spot and new crop prices, but a full 12 month forward curve,” explains Brown. “If an elevator is bidding for delivery for June, July, August and September, we’ll have prices for every one of those delivery periods.”
News Categories
Latest RRFN Podcasts
Subscribe to RRFN
Get a weekly digest from RRFN to stay up-to-date on all the latest news in agriculture.